By CAITLIN HOFEN, Features Editor
World-famous video games and hit Netflix television show “The Witcher” had humble beginnings as fantasy novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.
Consisting of six novels and 15 short stories, the story of Geralt of Rivia was translated into English in 2008.
Described as having a cult following in Poland and Central and Eastern European countries, “The Witcher” stories have been translated into 37 languages and sold over 15 million copies worldwide.
While “The Witcher” has found the most success as three different video game stories, I personally have only watched the Netflix adaptation and read some of the novels.
Therefore, I’ll be reviewing the first novel, “The Last Wish,” and comparing it to the first season of the show.
Overall, I was captivated by the first season of the show.
However, I was a little disappointed with the first book.
I think if I had read the book first, I would have enjoyed it more.
When I watch a show or movie before reading the book, I can only picture the characters from the show and not how the book describes them.
Both the book and movie follow the pattern of inconsistent events in Geralt’s life.
However, the show has three timelines going at once. Not just Geralt’s.
Within the book, the events are in a different order than the show.
As a character in the book, Geralt seems insecure about himself and his profession.
He wants to be a true witcher and only act when money is at hand. But that’s not who he is as a person, mutant or not.
He wants to help his friends, and he cares deeply for others.
I enjoyed getting to hear Geralt’s inner thoughts through the novel as one does with most books.
I think it added context and insight into him as a character.
Some scenes and subplots shown in the television show were made clearer when I read the book by adding more detail.
Something else I enjoyed about the book was the reader is given more background information about witchers themselves than what the television show gives.
While this could be a purposeful tactic on Netflix’s part, I liked knowing more about the origins of witchers.
The reader is introduced to a few characters not shown on the show, and some characters have different names.
I enjoyed the friendship displayed in the book of Dandelion and Geralt more than the toleration the two display in the show.
I think by only teasing the characters of Ciri and Yennifer in the first novel and not going into extreme detail, I got to understand the character of Geralt better.
I realize Netflix’s adaptation is loosely based on the books, but I do like the more in-depth details I read in the novel.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. Since it’s been translated from the author’s native tongue, there are a few passages that don’t always flow smoothly.
But I think Sapkowski had great ideas to create the world of the Continent and the adventures of Geralt of Rivia.